Building the Beauty Industry: What to Expect in M&A in 2014

By: Abby Penning

Posted: February 21, 2014, from the March 2014 issue of GCI Magazine.

Merger and acquisition (M&A) trends are always hard to predict, but for the beauty industry, sectors like professional skin care brands and beauty devices are primed to see more M&A activity in 2014.

Retail and distribution realities are often some of the biggest factors in M&A transactions, as brands with strong distribution chains are often easier to expand and, thus, more attractive to acquirers.

Independent brands often have more freedom and agility in product development, and that, in itself, can make them attractive targets for M&A.

2014 Expectations

For 2014, Mellage expects to see more M&A movement overall, and, notably, moves in some distinct niches. “Some of the spaces where we’re seeing a lot of activity are particularly in the professional beauty space—and in skin especially,” she says of recent M&A. “We have Obagi being acquired by Valeant, SkinCeuticals acquired by L’Oréal several years ago now and, more recently, SkinMedica acquired by Allergan—so we have several of the top medical brands of skin care being acquired in the last few years.”

Mellage continues, “[The professional skin care] segment is interesting to look at for a number of reasons. Its brands are often experiencing higher growth, especially the smaller, up-and-coming brands. A lot of times, they’re growing in double digits, so it is an attractive growth opportunity [for potential acquirers]. And it’s often where we’re seeing innovations hit the market for the first time, so it could be attractive from an R&D standpoint as well.”

There also is the increasing presence of beauty devices to contend with. “A lot more beauty device brands are being acquired, and I would expect some more activity to happen in the devices space,” Mellage says. “It’s similar to where we were 10 years ago with professional skin care. It’s been two to three years now where we’ve been looking at the beauty devices market, and [when we first began tracking], basically none of the beauty device brands were owned by large CPG firms. When L’Oréal acquired Clarisonic, that kind of opened the floodgates to more acquisitions in that space. There are still a lot of possibilities there.”

Additionally, Mellage notes that beauty companies and investors are looking at different global markets. “Certainly the emerging markets are the next frontier markets that many companies are looking to get a foothold in. But I wouldn’t say its limited just to emerging markets,” she says. “A lot of times, a company’s sales may have stalled in their domestic markets or the more mature places where they participate, and so acquiring a smaller, up-and-coming brand would help accelerate some growth.”

Buying Brands

If your company is looking to make acquisitions, it’s certainly an exciting time—technology and growing global markets offer a lot of new opportunities. But having a game plan before buying is always a good idea.

Mellage explains, “I think [companies looking to purchase beauty brands] really need to look beyond their own existing knowledge. A lot of times, even if they already participate in the industry, their knowledge might not be as broad or as unbiased as it needs to be to identify and assess the different opportunities. Also, there tends to be a lot of landmines buried in contracts, supply agreements, manufacturing processes and so forth, which can require significant due diligence to uncover. I was talking with our senior vice president Eric Vogelsberg, who heads our M&A practice at Kline, and he commented that a lot of acquirers are too reliant on their internal deal teams. They tend to overestimate what the synergies might be in order to successfully integrate and manage the brands once they own them.”

According to Brian Robinson, president of TPR Holdings, which owns beauty brands such as Cargo Cosmetics, Zirh, FCUK fragrances and more, “We look for a few things when we evaluate brands for potential acquisition. Some of the key evaluations items are: a) Does the brand have historical proven sell-through?; b) Does the brand have an excessive amount of general and administrative expenses?; c) Does the brand have current distribution with any of our existing partners?; and d)Can we improve the overall operations as they currently exist?” These retail partnerships and logistical, business-backed elements are often key in new acquisitions. “Our brands do share customers—not only retailers but international distributors as well. This gives us some strength in bundling brands. In many cases, they also share component suppliers as well, so we can help with the supply chain and so on,” Robinson says.

He also explains, “Brands with traditional distribution—perfumeries, department stores, big box/mass—are easiest to sell due to ease of transition to large multinational players. Anything with non-traditional distribution is going to be harder to convince someone to buy without the pipes already laid down and the experience in the category and/or channel.”

For the small brands looking to sell to interested acquirers, having a positive public persona also is a great way to garner M&A interest. “Getting your name out there is important,” notes Mellage. “Some of the small brands may only have $1–2 million in sales, but they have a great reputation and are out there. Get some good publicity; you can use a lot of PR and social media as relatively inexpensive ways to make that happen. And then have the sales behind it, to show a solid track record financially. Investors want to be looking for that—steady gain and potential opportunity.”

Remaining Independent

The reason for all of the exciting opportunity in the beauty industry right now is largely because of the great small brands that are out there catering to niche markets or specific categories, and these independent brands aren’t always looking for growth through M&A.